ISIS has found a huge moneymaking method that's 'impervious to sanctions and air raids'

The US has stepped up attacks on oil trucks in Syria in an effort
to hit a major source of funding for ISIS. But that's likely not
nearly enough to significantly affect the terrorist group's
bottom line.

A recent report in The New York Times shows that ISIS — aka
ISIL, Islamic State, and Daesh — pulls in hundreds of millions of
dollars from "taxing" and extorting those who live in the
territory that the group controls in Iraq and Syria.

ISIS is thought to make as much as $900 million from residents
and businessmen in its territory, American and European officials
told The Times. And this revenue isn't easy to diminish since it
has "so far proved largely impervious to sanctions and air
raids," according to The Times.

Experts have long said that taxation and extortion is ISIS' main
revenue source, but The Times showed the extent to which ISIS is
entrenched in the cities and towns it has seized.

Since ISIS markets itself as a legitimate state complete with the
functions of any other government bureaucracy, the militants have
created a complex financial system to extract as much money as
possible from people and businesses. ISIS charges import taxes,
rent for businesses, fines for breaking laws, utility bills, and
income tax.

The Times provided examples of how ISIS runs this operation
inside its territory:

In a neighborhood in Mosul, Iraq, ISIS has transformed a
police station into a market and charges vendors 2.8 million
Iraqi dinars, or roughly $2,500, per year to rent a stall.

In ISIS' de facto capital of Raqqa, Syria, the "Office of
Services" collects a "cleaning tax" of about 2,500 to 5,000
Syrian pounds, or about $7 to $14, from merchants.

ISIS also charges for utilities like water and electricity,
and residents go to "collection points" to pay their bills. Those
usually total about 800 Syrian pounds, or roughly $2.50, for
electricity, and 400 pounds, or about $1.20, for water.

ISIS' "Office of Resources" controls the group's oil and
smuggling operations, in addition to businesses like soft-drink
plants, mobile-phone companies, textile and furniture workshops,
and factories that produce chemicals, cement, and tiles.

ISIS also skims revenue from small businesses, demanding a
cut of their profits.

ISIS charges an income tax of about 10%.

ISIS imposes fines and fees for services or infractions
including car registration, college textbooks, traffic
violations, and smoking.

And the money ISIS makes from extortion comes in addition to
revenue it is gaining from oil smuggling (estimated to bring in
about $500 million), looting banks (which brought the group a
one-time windfall of $1 billion), and kidnapping. The group also
smuggles antiquities to sell on the black market.

Though extortion and taxation is bringing in plenty of money for
ISIS in the short term, it may not sustainable in the long run.

The Times reported
in a separate story this week that ISIS' statehood project is
under serious strain. The group is scrambling to recruit
professionals who can operate oil equipment, keep the electricity
running, and perform medical care.

Without these basic necessities, it's likely that residents will
continue fleeing ISIS territory for Europe and surrounding
countries, which could leave fewer people inside ISIS-controlled
cities and towns for the group to tax.

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a counterterrorism
analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told
Business Insider in September that Muslims were fleeing ISIS
territory "in droves" as the group falls short of promises to
provide satisfactory government services.

And people are already struggling to pay ISIS' heavy taxes. ISIS
is thought to have imposed taxes of as much as 50% on the
salaries of government employees, which led the Iraqi government
to stop paying people who live in ISIS-controlled territory,
according to Newsweek.